The Leningrad Ruse
by Titania Le Fey
Summary: The Leningrad Ruse and the loss of Snake's eye


Brilliant flashes of orange and red filled the night sky around the gliders. Lightening bugs came to mind only they were not the sign of death like these trailing lights. Snake had lost a good portion of his squadron on the way in and now toward the center of Leningrad proper the fire was getting thicker. Landing here was even more suicidal then flying through. The whole mission seemed to be one big cluster fuck! The decision of how to handle the mission was easy once Snake flipped on the radio.

"We're blowing the fucking place. Come around hard and cover me."

Protest came from HQ but Snake ignored them screaming over the general.

"You're not out here dying motherfuckers." The radio fell silent and then sputtered to life once more.

"Yeah?" anger flooded Plissken's voice expecting more from he bastards sitting in their posh offices back on the ground. Snake was surprised when he heard the voice that came through broken over the transmission.

"Texas Thunder here. We'll try and draw fire. Just get in and done. Time for us all to go home!"

"You got it commander." Snake answered almost cheerfully. He wanted out of this place. The sun was just coming up over the buildings filling the world with eerie haze. The brilliant sunrise as seen through the descending poison gas blared in purples, greens and orange. Snake was glad someone here had a brain between their ears and could see what a disaster it was out here.

"You heard the man. Come in, take it low and fast on my command."

Snake eyed the monitors. Glowing sticks of green jutted up from the black landscape and the red pulse showed in the distance. That was the mark. Plissken barely touched the thruster and his glider jolted as it sped through the growing cloud of orange film blotting out the scene from the small windshield. Still the flashing and sound rocked the wings.

"Someone's getting good down there." Snake mumbled to himself. The blasts were getting too close for comfort.

"I'm taking the 45 to drop. Stay at 20 and tear ass. I'll catch up."

Plissken dropped the nose of the glider to an angle they were told had one outcome, a huge fiery crash. The Snake was the best and confidence went further on the battlefield then caution. Out here everything was insanity. You might as well go along with it.

One sharp turn and he started to plummet as the glider lost lift.

"PLISSKEN! What the hell are you doing?" The rasp of Big Bob Hauk blared through his half broken radio. Snake hissed in return too busy struggling with the bucking glider to answer. Not that he'd give the commander the time of day if he were free to chat.

The Gulfire rocked, strained and then flipped flawlessly to its belly. A few more jolts as the wind currents smoothed and he was coming in so low and fast he could see the Ruskies' faces when they pointed at the glider exploding from the hazy mist right down main street.

Snake chuckled as he heard their yells. "Look out! That gas-crazed American is trying to die."

It all stopped when the wings sailed over them and one noticed the gray cobras etched in the black undersides. He didn't have to imagine the next words that would come from their mouths. "Змей пришел"… "The Snake has come".

The black blotch of the building had expanded and he watched the collision clock wind down as the Gulfire screamed toward the wall. Snake jerked the stick roughly, hit the thrust and ran vertical up the target building. The wing scrapped on the right and he nearly slammed into the brick face before he regained control.

Suddenly, the green disappeared and the monitor went black. It was time, Snake slammed on the stick and the nose rocked as it struggled to come level. The glider hadn't finished bucking under him when he dropped the charge. Even if it was near the target it was good enough. The Lieutenant dropped down the far side of the building in another steep dive to regain speed. The wings rattled resisting all the directional changes and currents that he forced it to ride.

"Fire in the hole." He called over the radio as he saw gliders scream past hundreds of feet above.

"Get out of there soldier."

It was the commander and Snake scowled at the speaker. "Fuck no, I want to stay here."

His voice bled with sarcasm. It was only a few moments before he was coming up on the tail end of the two merged squadrons.

"Welcome back Flyboy."

Snake smiled. "Just haul ass baby. Save the compliments for when I can concentrate on them.

Snake tried not to think much about later. For his nerves it was far worse then the war or dangerously close explosions. His hand ran over his breast pocket until the fingers could feel the ring under the fabric. The feeling brought on an unexplainable urgency. He wanted back to base now.

"Hit the thrust. I want to get the fuck out of here."

Snake briefly heard Taylor's laughter before a tremendous bomb drowned out everything in dazzling light and mind numbing sound. Plissken was momentarily blind in the rearing Gulfire. Screams came through the radio causing it to screech with feedback. Vision came back and drowned the barrage in terror. One of his gliders was plummeting. The one he wanted to stay aloft.

Words came before clear thought. "I'm going back"

Snake was maneuvering his Gulfire to catch up with the black bird trying desperately to slow its decent to the ground.

"Sophia?" Snake called her repeatedly over the radio but there was only silence. Plissken for the first time in his military career felt dread and fear.

"Stay on course Lieutenant."

His eye narrowed. Anyone who would ask him to leave his Geisha behind deserved his unending fury.

"Sarge, take 'em home. I'm going back to make a pick up."

"Snake that's crazy. You'll never make it." Taylor was being rational but his voice of reason wouldn't work today.

"I don't give a fuck." Snake snapped back. Another shrill scream blocked out whomever spoke next. He came around and the orange haze of poison finally cleared. He could see the Ruskies clearly dragging her from the glider. His girl was covered in blood from the crash. It soaked her white hair to a sickening orange red.

Snake slammed on the thruster driven by the sounds over the radio, crying, screams and tearing fabric.

"Hold on baby. I'm coming." He said it maybe for her but internally it was more for himself. He had to get to her. There was no other choice to be made. The screams pierced his cockpit and he wished for anything to block out the pain in her voice. He couldn't go any faster the bird wouldn't even as he made futile attempts to push it well beyond what the design was meant to withstand.

Plissken watched one hand her to another. It forced him to stare at the controls. He couldn't recognize what was happening and keep any remnant of sanity. Deep inside he knew but he focused on the fact she was still alive. He could still take her home. When he dared to look again she was fighting back and hope surged in Plissken. Instantly, a flash filled his eyes soaking the whole interior of the glider in phosphorescent white. The glider shuddered suddenly flying sideways. His left side exploded into pain. Hundreds of wounds had been opened in the left side of the man and his glider.

Snake set his jaw against the pain. He wouldn't accept the injury. It could wait.

Frantically, he blinked to clear his vision but his sight refused to clear. The world was a blur and his eyes welled up with water. Snake wrote it all off to the flash and crying. In the situation tears wouldn't be so far fetched even for a man as hardened as the Snake.

Only tears his mind repeated until his head went white-hot. The scream of pain was almost detached and drowned out by a horrendous pounding in his head. Someone had set his brain on fire, orange, hot, raging. His hands left the controls as he tried to wipe his eyes despite the tempered glass preventing it. In madness and agony things like that are forgotten. It was unbearable. Blazing orange tendrils of scalding heat ripped through his left eye and through his body. Finally, his right eye began to clear and a scream mingled with his own.

Lowering his hands Plissken grabbed the controls. Hazy gave way to a fairly clear picture and he could once more see Sophia standing against her glider, the Ruskies were gone. Something was wrong and he strained his failing vision to see. The truth hit him like a bullet to the chest. His eye was forgotten when he saw her head bent back and the gouge in her throat so deep he thought he saw vertebrae from the front.

Snake froze staring, hurting, burning as the glider rode its own wild currents toward the ground.

"SNAKE!" Taylor's voice came through everything even the pain. His head throbbed in sync with the tone of his voice.

"PULL UP! Snake! Pull up!"

Survival instinct came online and everything faded to a vaguely tangible dream in his mind. His hands had an iron grip on the controls. He pulled up into a steep climb to rejoin his "herd". A shot rocked Taylor's glider just as Plissken retook point. He couldn't comprehend what was happening. His mind blotted out the sounds and the flashes. He had become the Gulfire's autopilot.

The only thing that remained was the burning in his head punctuated by flashes of images he couldn't seem to drive away. He wanted to die. He could feel the cold seeping in like the Russian air hissing through the peppered side of the glider. Part of him had died, went offline for good. A gaping hole remained in the dead area. Slowly, the burning fire in his head filled the dark space, hate followed, as did the pain. It all stewed here in the gap boiling like some great lava well in the center of a dead landscape. Snake could feel only the burning pain so he clung to it and let it consume him.


End file.
